SIERRA's MUSIC

 I get to brag about my Sierra. She actually let me take a few pictures. She has been playing the piano for a few months and the flute and she loves to make music. She wrote her own song on the piano the other day and it was really good. The words were good and the tune was catchy. She told me it was stupid and she refuses to play it again. I feel bad she lost her confidence. It seems the more I cheer her on the less confident she becomes. A mother and an almost teenage daughter is an interesting dynamic and sometimes really challenging, but I am blessed to have a really good daughter. She helps out so much. She is great at doing her chores and willing to watch the boys whenever I need her too. As a matter of fact, I think she likes to be in charge and for me to leave. I would not be able to do missionary work, take classes, or do visiting teaching without her. She is my favorite oldest girl!

ROUND 2 of 4H

Well, we started round two of 4H. This year she actually gets to ride. She is really excited. We will have horses on our property. I love that she gets to do what she is passionate about. We are so blessed to have the greatest 4H coach in the country. I have been busy filling out all the forms to register her for 4H. I have also signed Madison up for 4H. She is doing creative sewing with me. I don't really want her to do horse until she is older. It is just a lot of intense reading and getting an eight year old to work that hard would be too much work for me.    

BUSY BOYS

I heard him hollering, while I was blogging and this is where I found him. Sigh. He is so busy. I really shouldn't take the time to blog anymore, but I don't ever want to forget these moments. 

James brought me a present yesterday. He handed me a jar. He proudly said, "Mom this is for you! It is my pee in a jar!" Really? I looked down sure enough there was yellow liquid in the jar. BOYS.

MADISON's SCHOOL WORK

Madison brought this home from school. The girl had a balloon coming out of her mouth and the boys stole it. I love her handwriting and how precious her thoughts are. I thought I would share.

A BOY, and ANGELS

This boy is so much lately. I bought a watermelon and threw the rind out for the chickens and he decided to put on Madison's shoes and escape out the back door and share the rind with them. He is too much.

A few weeks ago he was out playing in the yard with all the neighbor kids and my kids. I wanted him to stay inside with me but he kept throwing an enormous fit. I told Sierra to keep an eye on him. I kept checking on him multiple times while I was cleaning the laundry room, which is really my entryway. I kept saying, "Do you have eyes on Ashton?" She would say, "Yes!" Then I saw Paul, our neighbor, pull into our yard holding this boy. I was ran out of the laundry room to take him from Paul. He said, "Is this your little boy?" I said, "Yes." He said, "I found him up on the main road, near the canal." The canal was full of water. He could have been hit by a car or worse fallen into the canal. I told Paul I am not this kind of a mother. I don't loose my children. I don't know how this happened. I told the neighbor kids to go home. I brought my little ones in the house and told them how important it is to keep eyes on Ashton when they are out playing. In my heart I vowed not to trust them again, however, I wanted them to know how serious it was for them to say they had eyes on Ashton and didn't.

We are grateful the angels of heaven were looking out for this little boy and that Paul happened to leave his house and find him. I am so grateful I get to keep him for another day. I don't know what I would have done if any harm had of come to my Ashton Max. He is crazy, independent and busy, but he is mine and I love him more than life.

BUILDING A FENCE for some HORSES

Nate and the Kinder's hatched a plan. The Kinder's want to move their horses to the valley. Currently they are in Price. They told Nate they would come out and work on the farm if they could board their horses here. Nate agreed because it is a non-committal way for him to help Sierra get a horse on the property she can love and work with. She needs one for 4H anyway. The Kinder's said they would love to let her use the horses whenever she wanted. We are hoping this will be a win, win for both our families. Nate bought a fence for the horses. The Kinder's and some exchange students from Germany came out to help us put it up. Our property is so over run with weeds and there is so much work that needs to be done on it, I am so happy to see something being done and at least the fenced area where the horses are kept we will no longer need to worry about weeding or mowing.

SUNDAY

I love Sundays. I can't express in words how much I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. How it has transformed my life and helped me and blessed me. It has given me everything. The strength and guidance to navigate lives most difficult questions and moments. If my children remember nothing else about me I hope they remember that I love this church, The church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. Even thought it is an endurance race every Sunday to make it through sacrament meeting, I wouldn't rather share my bench with anyone else. I love these little ones of mine.

GLENNWOOD SPRINGS

 Nate decided to take us on a mini vacation to Glennwood Spring's Adventure park. It was just an overnight deal and it was perfect. I realized we can do a two day one night vacation and barely survive and that is making progress. The minute we got to the hotel the girls wanted to go swimming. Ashton kept running back and forth from the hot tub to the pool and dipping his feet in. He slipped on the wet floor twice and bumped his head but he wouldn't stop running no matter how many times I disciplined him or how many time gravity disciplined him. After thirty minutes I was good, I made them all go back to the hotel. Nate ordered Chinese. We ate. Then we walked around Glennwood Springs and bought ice cram and some souvenirs. James insisted on a watch. Hilarious, because he can't tell time. Then we bedded down for the night. It was crazy getting all the kids to bed when they were so hyper from being in a hotel.

We woke up the next morning and I put the boys in the stroller and walked the river trail. It was so beautiful and made me realize why Nate is always trying to convince me to move there. The girls went to the pool and swam while their dad watched.

When Adventure Park opened we took the tram to the top of the mountain. James was excited until we got about halfway up and then he was terrified. He started screaming and clinging to the stroller with all his might. We all thought it was hilarious. (Shame on us.) I videoed him and took pictures and Nate laughed. He loved the Alpine Coaster and the cave tour at the top and on the way back down he said, "This isn't scary." We all agreed with him.

Sierra tried out all the rides and loved every minute. Madison wanted to crawl around in the wooden box, that was suppose to simulate a cave, a million times. She didn't want to ride any of the rides. She finally went down the Alpine Coaster and loved it. James went down the Alpine Coaster four times and threw a fit when we said we were done. Ashton was fussy the whole time except when he played in the sand box, and luckily there was one of those for him to play in. He tried crawling through the wooden box with Madison and panicked halfway through. I guess that's why they have an age recommendation. He fell apart. I couldn't help him. Finally, Madison coxed him to follow her and he made it. Mommy fail. Near the end he was screaming at the top of his lungs while Sierra and I went on the zip line. The guy infront of us said, "Whose kid is that screaming?" I proudly said, "Mine." Nate got sick after riding the Hammer and attending the 4D IMAX movie, he looked green and endured the rest of the theme park.

In the end, we grabbed McDonald's and headed home. Don't you think McDonald's is the perfect end to the perfect vacation. Yuck! Nate was just ready to be home. I think we all were.

(P.S. The pictures loaded backwards.)